Student Unions Submit University Reform Proposals

The Federation of Estonian Student Unions (EÜL) has submitted six proposals to the Cultural Affairs Committee for amending the university reform, which was vetoed by the president on the first go-around.

Among the most important, the first one relates to the financial autonomy of universities. EÜL said the grounds and procedure for state funding should be specified more precisely, based on the existing concept of base-line cost.

It also said the condition for free tuition should be full-time study or completion of a cumulative 85 percent of the curriculum in the standard period of study. Students would thus not be disqualified if they fell a credit point short in one semester. "Among other things, this would avoid excessive paperwork and additional workload," said Eimar Veldre, chairman of EÜL.

Academic leave should remain up to the universities to decide, or academic load provisions should be the basis for regulating academic leave, the EÜL said.

The conditions and procedure for reimbursement of tuition should be clearly specified for those who failed to complete a subject and those who exceed the mandated period of study, according to the Federation. It feels it should be stated that those who declared under 30 credit points but are full-time students have a full right to tuition refunds.

And it said draft legislation on the reform and study allowances should be read by Parliament in parallel so that they can be adopted simultaneously, or study allowance provisions should be added to the draft reforms.